Under the blue sky, John Robert Prude is eager to get back on the ranch and range

by Ed ToddMidland Reporter-Telegram

Published 6:00 pm, Wednesday, January 6, 2010

With the blue sky reigning serenely and beckoning rainclouds to nurture the West Texas plains and the Davis Mountains far to the west, John Robert Prude is taking it easy in Midland. Not that he wants to. He is sort of resting, ordered by physicians, carried out by nurses and other health-care stalwarts and enforced by Betty Hicks Prude, his sweetheart-wife of 60 years.

"Blue skies

Smiling at me.

Nothing but blue skies

Do I see."

She is a looker, as the fellows would say "back then" and still do, charmed by her enchanting blue eyes, a blonde now graced with gray. And, at 5-foot-even, she pretty well has John Robert under control which, by his headstrong nature, is not entirely to his liking. John Robert is accustomed to running the show wherever he is and, particularly, at the historic Prude Ranch down Fort Davis way.

He is restless. He is eager to high-tail it back to their ranch in the scenic Davis Mountains. And he will. But it won't be by his timing, which is now. It will be "as soon as you are walking" once again and ambling around, his wife tells him.

"Daddy," his firstborn, John Robert "Chip" Prude, Jr., assures him, "when you can walk down that hallway, we will go home."

Back on the ranch early last December, John Robert fell, sustained a broken hip, and he is healing in his room in Midland Memorial Hospital's West Campus.

John Robert Prude, known variously as scholar, athlete, educator, outdoorsman, horseman, rancher, family man, counselor and organizer, is, like his late professor-father, John G. "Big Spurs" Prude, a person of consummate goodwill. He has a penchant for tale-telling and ranching.

"He is quite a cowboy," said his wife, who knows him best as a loving man who, on occasion, can be a bit cantankerous if things don't go his way.

His tale-telling surely takes on the spirit of legendary Texas writer-folklorist J. Frank Dobie who reputedly and famously declared to the entertainment of his listeners and readers: "Never let the truth (or the facts) get in the way of a good story."

The Prude Ranch, established as cattle operation in 1896 by forebears of John Robert Prude, in the 1950s became dedicated as a "guest ranch," a summer camp for fun and character-building for boys and girls while they are enjoying life "on the range" and in the mountains on horseback and hiking and taking on projects. Over the years, the Prude Ranch has earned a far-ranging wholesome legacy and attracts folks throughout Texas, the Great Southwest and beyond. Since the 1970s, Prude Ranch has hosted the annual Fort Davis CycleFest, which draws hundreds of spirited bicyclists, including Midland-Odessa 'cyclists. The ranch welcomes horseback riders and hikers, education programs, birding, excursions, corporate retreats, family reunions and vacations, sports fitness and medicine camps, square dancers and fellowship conferences.

John Robert Prude and Betty Hicks got their mutual introduction on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine in 1947. His father, former superintendent of Rankin schools south of Midland, was a Sul Ross professor. And the handsome, 6-foot-1, dark-eyed John Robert Prude represented "the best" of Sul Ross, then Sul Ross State Teachers College.

Resting on his hospital bed and ready to get moving, John Robert Prude glanced at a full-page photograph of himself as the Sul Ross Brand (yearbook) King in the 1948 Brand and immediately yelled with joy and to the delight of those all around: "Muy Bueno Hombre!" In plain English, John Robert Prude is a "very good man." Indeed, he is.

An athlete and scholar, he played Sul Ross Lobo basketball, wore jersey No. 14 and earned four degrees, two bachelor's and two master's. (At Rankin High School, he played Red Devil football earlier in the 1940s and graduated valedictorian.) Betty Hicks studied English literature and home economics, starred in campus theater productions and took on suitors, including Dan Blocker, who studied dramatic arts and who gained fame and fans in his 1959-1972 role of Hoss Cartwright in the television series "Bonanza." In a late 1940s Sul Ross musical skit, Betty Hicks played opposite Dan Blocker: She was a "gal named Lou," and he was "Dangerous Dan McGrew."

John Robert Prude and Betty Hicks married in 1949. She taught English literature and grammar in Fort Davis and Odessa, and he served as principal of an Odessa elementary school, Ben Milam. In the summers, the couple operated the Prude Ranch Summer Camp for Boys and Girls. All the while, they raised their four children: Chipper ("Chip"), Andy, Charles and Jaynellen.

The 82-year-old West Texas legend that is John Robert Prude is raring to get along down the trail to his home near Fort Davis on the Prude Ranch. And with Betty Prude encouraging him all the while, John Robert once again will be tall in the saddle on the ranch at whatever he role he takes on.

Godspeed, John Robert Prude, for you are "Home on the Range":

"Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam, Where the deer and the antelope play, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all day."